Brian Shaw’s Nuggets look to match Sacramento’s energy at the start

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Christopher Dempsey
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October 30, 2013 @ 7:09 pm
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General Nuggets |
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Brian Shaw (Denver Post file)

SACRAMENTO — Less than an hour before the Nuggets’ regular season opener and it’s already feeling as energized as it was billed to be. Sacramento rolled out the ‘purple carpet’ for Shaquille O’Neal, part of the ownership group. Purple shirts adorn the seats of Sleep Train arena. On the backs of the t-shirts is the phrase 1985-Forever.

The Kings survived a huge challenge from an ownership group that would have moved the team to Seattle, and the fans – and city, at-large – has staged, what Nuggets coach Brian Shaw called “Super Bowl” celebration today in immense appreciation that their team is still in town.

In the midst of all of this, Shaw’s Nuggets have to find a way to match the Kings inevitable high energy, and thrive to have a chance to win his head coaching debut.

“There’s a lot of excitement in the air, and you can feel that,” Shaw said. “I don’t want our team to get caught up in the emotion of all of that. They are going to have to sustain runs during the game or overcome it when their team goes on runs and feeds off the crowd. I told them this morning that one of the ways to combat that is to jump on them early and try to make them play from behind.”

Helping matters is the availability of guard Ty Lawson, whose groin injury was threatening to keep him out of this game. He’ll start, though, and Anthony Randolph gets the start at small forward in place of injured Wilson Chandler.

“He was a pleasant surprise to everybody (in training camp),” said Shaw of Randolph. “With (Danilo Gallinari) and Wilson being out he was the most productive for us at that position. Everybody got a couple of starts during the preseason and I think he showed the best.”